Lowe, 38, posted a 5.05 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 0.67 HR/9, and 59% groundball rate in 187 innings this year for Atlanta. Lowe's Braves career ended on a sour note, as his 8.75 September ERA contributed to their collapse. Still, his groundball rate ranked second in all of baseball. Lowe signed a four-year, $60MM deal with the Braves in January of 2009.

For the Braves, the benefit is $5MM in much-needed salary relief for a pitcher otherwise projected for middle relief on their 2012 club. The Braves and Indians last matched up on a trade in July of 2006, when the Tribe sent reliever Bob Wickman to Atlanta for Max Ramirez.

Comments

The Indians rotation looks better than alot of teams. I dont know if I would be jumping for joy over D. Lowe! I guess if they didnt really give up anything and are getting him at a discounted price, then whatever. Lowe was a clog in the Braves rotation with Delgado Teheran, and Minor waiting to make an impact at the MLB level. Indians really need to look for some quality names to provide some offense.

Astonishing? ATL GM Wren publicly said Lowe would NOT make the 2012 Opening Day rotation. This is a $15M pitcher. We have guys making the league min that pitch twice as good as him (Delgado, Teheran, Minor, etc.). Considering we couldn’t unload Kawakami’s $8M (from 2010) after he was given the franchise Scarlet Letter and demoted to Double-A, I’m surprised we were able to get a decent prospect and not have to fork over the remaining $5M. I’m happy. Take him.

Why? Waiver trades simply allow players to be eligible for the postseason roster. A straight up trade can be done any time but if it’s done while your team is in the hunt between August 1st and the end of the season then that player isn’t postseason eligible.

So why didn’t the Red Sox trade (for example) $2 million to the O’s for the rights to Jeremy Guthrie for September? At the end of September they would trade him back to the O’s and they would make the playoffs by having another SP to throw out there.

I mean that’s pretty much my argument. There are limitations on when and how trades are done. I think no trades can occur after the waiver deadline because there’s no way of stopping teams from doing ridiculous things like what I proposed. No?

Teams can trade whenever. The waiver-trade deadline is the last time a player can be traded and still be eligible for the playoffs. If a player is traded after they can still play for the team, just not for a playoff roster spot.

Its really a win for everyone – the Indians get an ok pitcher in a pretty rough rotation, Braves free up some salary and avoid another KK problem with Lowe possibly missing the MLB roster, and Lowe gets to perform under the expectations of a 5mil pitcher instead of a 15mil guy (while still getting paid 15 mil). Every body happy.

They brought back Carmona because his $7M price tag is more than reasonable in this day and age. Also, if they declined his option, he still would have been under team control through arbitration, which he may have made more than the $7M.

Also, you can never have enough pitching, and you are going to have to rely on Jeanmar Gomez (whom I like), David Huff (who is terrible) and Zach McAllister (have no idea what you can count on with him). This gives them a guy you know what you’ll get; 180 innings and an ERA between 4.5 & 5 at the back end of the rotation.

I don’t think he’s the type of veteran you’d want as an influence. You’re going to end up a ton of popped collars…

Seriously though, good pickup for the Indians- since DLowe pitches better in cold weather, and Braves get $5mil to help pickup a better SS or a decent LF, which are their two biggest holes, assuming Heyward doesn’t regress next year.

Good move for the Indians too, I think. Lowe is hardly a stud pitcher, but he’s a dependable innings eater who gets a lot of groundballs. If they resign Carmona, their rotation is going to look pretty sturdy.

True, Lowe didn’t get run support some of the time, but the man wasn’t a consummate professional and was by far our worst pitcher. For someone that typically gets it done at the end of the season, he didn’t in 2011. Better dealing him now and getting something for him than letting him pitch (terribly) in 2012 and letting him bolt for free agency (good luck) in 2013. We have enough young pitchers to not worry about an innings eater. We don’t have the same needs as we did in 2007. Thank God.

I don’t get it…Braves fans are jumping up for joy with the trade. I don’t care what the FIP numbers say, he was still terrible. I don’t have to look at the numbers in order to define how good or bad he was. I watched him all season bro. 38 years old and isn’t going to get any better. He is just trash.

That’s the head scratching part–for a 1 year 5 million dollar commitment, there should have been 10 teams interested, maybe more. Lowe isn’t all that good, but is he is durable, and FIP/xFIP suggests he was unlucky last year. Although, the Indians IF defense may not help change that luck.

And Alex Gonzalez and Freddy Freeman? Chipper wasn’t bad, and Uggla was surprisingly better than his rep would indicate.

Tim Hudson another groundball pitcher was 16-10 with a 3.22 ERA. Trust me, I saw the difference, Lowe is just old, can’t last 6 innings, a lot of walks, you could have 4 gold glovers out there and his ERA would still be over 4

I don’t think those stats say he is a “bad” defensive player but that he is “average”. I think too many of my fellow Braves fans have fallen in love with the hype of what the “experts” say he will become. I think he will become a solid player but give the kid time to grow. How many kids his age are even in the majors.

I have no idea how to judge range factors, but it seemed to me that Freeman has great hands, excellent footwork around the bag, and very little range. He’ll prevent a lot of bad throws from becoming errors, but he’ll let a fair number of grounders that other 1B would reach become singles, too.

The defensive stats are heavily dependent on range, which is not Freeman’s strength. The reason the stats are heavily dependent on range is because it is really hard to quantify the effect of scoops/soft hands/etc.

Using range to evaluate a 1B is not necessarily a good way to evaluate them, because it is the position that is least dependent on range. Besides, defensive stats over 1 season can be dramatically impacted by a few plays.

Chipper and Uggla did not play good D, but you can’t just assume that their negative plays are uniformly distributed and that D. Lowe was on the mound for a proportional or greater number of those plays. Therefore, you can’t just say that Lowe’s crappy season was due to bad D behind him without combining a scouting perspective.

By the same token, it’s asinine to suggest that Lowe wouldn’t have been better with 4 great defenders behind him in the IF.

It irritates me when people make definitive statements using stats where the truth is likely in shades of grey.

in sum, each of the metrics accounts for plays made. soft hands and ‘scoop-ability’ are accounted for by these measures and need no special recognition

a ball scooped for an out is not any more valuable than a ball caught in the chest. you are confusing a discussion about the value of a performance with a discussion about the the talent of a player. we’re only talking about the former here

“you can’t just assume that their negative plays are uniformly distributed”

no one did

“you can’t just say that Lowe’s crappy season was due to bad D behind him”

exclusively? no one did

“By the same token, it’s asinine to suggest that Lowe wouldn’t have been better with 4 great defenders behind him in the IF.”

to suggest it? no, you’d be insane not to suggest it

it would be an overstatement to conclude it, definitely, based on the defensive metrics alone. but it is obviously probable that better infield defense leads to better results for a groundball pitcher over the course of a season. to challenge this idea would be eye-crossingly stupid

I take this as a sign the Tribe don’t think they will be in a position to win next year and just need a guy to go stand out there every 5th day next season. Disappointing seeing them throw in the towel so early, but not too much since I’m a Tigers fan.

I don’t see it that way. If that was the case then they’d find any average AAA starter and pay him $300k instead of $5M. I’m guessing they see him as a potential reclamation project as a #5 pitcher who can also throw around 200 innings.

I see this as a good move for the Tribe to be honest. They have a pretty good rotation, and for 5 mil they’re getting a guy who eats up innings, and a solid number 4-5 guy. If it doesn’t work out they only have to deal with the 5 mil for one season, and it let’s them move on and look at other options. I think this is a good move.

I don’t see it that way either. In a shallow pitching market, this is actually a decent deal. Considering they just picked up Carmona’s option for $7M and they’ll only be paying $5M of Lowe’s contract, knowing he’s a career innings eater, this provides them some depth, which is especially important with some young pitchers with more upside (Carrasco, Masterson) but not as much consistency. Great way to protect your young and still field a competitive team. They tailed off in the 2nd half in 2011 and if Lowe gets back close to his career form, he could be a decent pitcher pitching .650 ball with 12-14 wins and a 4.10 ERA. Not terrible for them considering Carmona couldn’t dream of that.

They got two major holes- SS (internal option is Pastornicky, which would be really risky though I think it would work), and LF (Prado doesn’t hit well enough to be a good LFer, even if he hit .300 he’d just be average)

Great move for the Braves to unload, but also a good one for Cleveland’s SP depth. Derek Lowe at the back of the rotation will be a big improvement over whatever David Huff or Jeanmar Gomez would offer at this point. Cleveland has a history of anchoring the back end of their rotation with serviceable veteran SPs (Scott Elarton, Kevin Millwood, Paul Byrd, etc.).

Jimenez, Masterson, Tomlin, Lowe and Carmona.

Looks a lot more functional than what they had coming into the year. 😛

Lowe had one of the biggest ERA/SIERRA differentials in the league last season, and he’s a good bounce-back candidate. The Tribe could have a very nice rotation next year. Now go get a real first baseman!

The only things I’m going to miss about him are his hot wife and his bat. Anyone who got Choptalk magazine knows what his wife looks like and you have to admit the guy could hold his own at the plate. He was good for 5 or 6 doubles a year which ain’t half bad for a pitcher. I consider this a big win for the Bravos. 5MM in salary relief helps alot when you’re a middle-market team.

Honestly if the braves could have pulled off a salary dump I would have been happy. I would have been more excited if the Indians just took the contract too. Keep you minor league arm ill take salary relief.

Solid trade for both teams. Atlanta frees up some salary space to sign a hitter. The Indians get an innings eating starting pitcher to mentor their young pitchers. Several of the young pitchers on the Braves have mentioned that Lowe helped them a great deal in the past 3 years.

I gotta give it to you Indians fans, you sure are optimistic. I don’t ever see many of you in the discussion forums though, maybe you could teach proper posting etiquette to some of the trolling Blue Jays fans that show up in every post regardless of subject.

Have the Braves traded any major prospects since Daniels raided their system? They were really gun-shy at the trading deadline (with good reason, those are some quality arms and starting pitching depth is really hard to come by).

I just don’t see them making a move for anybody that’s out there as it stands, but I also didn’t think the Indians would trade for Derek Lowe. Maybe trade Delgado or somebody not named Teheran to the Marlins for Lo-mo? Trade one of the pitchers for one of the Royals offensive kids?

As a Braves fan, I like it…
I like him (especially in the playoffs) but a little salary relief and a freed up roster spot for our young pitchers is a win I think.
He was really at a point last year where he just wasn’t helping the team by pitching.

Some great moves by the Braves already! Hinkse is back, McLouth, Lowe and KK are gone! With Kawakami coming off the books, we could afford to eat a chunk of Lowe’s contract and finally get rid of him AND bolster our crop of young pitching, which you can NEVER have enough of! Great job so far, Mr. Wren!

Gotta think Lowe’s numbers would improve at least marginally with a more mobile infield. Good trade for both teams. As a Braves fan, I couldn’t be happier. Watching Lowe pitch every 5th day always threw a wet blanket on my baseball love. Now I’ll get to watch the next wave instead.

Also, guys, I think it’s incredibly encouraging to see that the Braves are obviously very determined to make this a productive offseason. They did not hesitate to get things moving. I’m pumped.

It’s been lousy luck, not bad contract decisions.
-Lowe has always been an innings-eating and ground ball inducing beast and after losing out on AJ Burnett we were desperate.
-Did you see McLouth in Pittsburgh?
-Kawakami was a stud in Japan
None of them worked out

I don’t think that’s entirely fair. His trades have been pretty successful, except for McLouth, but it’s not like he traded away important pieces. Plus, free agency is just not the most effective way to acquire players. The Lowe and Kawakami signings were results of our rotation being completely decimated the year before.

Aside from the salary concerns, it’s a great deal for ATL. The three starters with the most IP were ground ball pitchers and the infield has the range of a sign post. If Hanson and JJ are healthy, then Minor is your 5th starter, and he’ll miss a lot more bats than Lowe.

Lowe was the main reason the Braves missed the playoffs two of his three seasons. He was just terrible last season. When I heard of this trade my first thoughts were “FINALLY!” Thank God that washed up bum is gone.

Now the Braves actually have a shot at least making the playoffs next season.

To be fair, Lowe’s bad pitching pre-Sept. is why he needed a great Sept. to not be a total waste that year. He also was helped by playing bad teams (Pittsburgh, Florida, Washington) with weaker than usual line-ups (either due to resting players or injury).

For example, Florida had a bad line-up the final week (no Hanley who owns Lowe, etc).

Yea, I thought about that while I was typing all that out. More details than I care about right now. The guy’s gone and the offseason’s barely started. That’s all I care about. I can’t freaking wait to watch our pitching next season.